HP builds a billboard in London one printed sheet at a time

For a printer brand, the brief almost writes itself: prove the product works by making it do something nobody expects a printer to do. HP’s campaign for its Smart Tank range did exactly that, assembling a full large-format OOH site in Clapham using 319 individual A4 sheets, printed live on the street. 

The idea is clean and the execution earns its place in public. The Smart Tank’s core proposition is long-lasting, refillable ink, a printer built for volume without the anxiety of running out mid-job. Printing a billboard sheet by sheet, in real time, in front of passersby, is about as direct a demonstration of that claim as you can make. No voiceover required. The product proves itself by doing the thing the product is for. 

The activation was captured through time-lapse and social content, extending the life of what was essentially a live stunt into a shareable format. What happens on the street becomes content; the OOH site is both the medium and the message.